Amanda Knox’s Ex-Boyfriend Leaves Court

'Freezer Mom' Makes First Court Appearance

Man Beaten by Police: 'I Didn't Do Anything'

Detroit Police: Children Found in Freezer a 'Terrible Tragedy'

NBC News
March 25, 2015

Moms Arrested After Entering School, Confronting Students

NBC News Channel
March 25, 2015

This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

MATT LAUER, co-host:But we want to begin this half-hour with a stunning admission by the men's
lacrosse
player at the
University of Virginia
accused of murdering
Yeardley Love
, a star on the
school
's
women
's team.
NBC
's
Jeff Rossen
is on the
Charlottesville
,
Virginia
, campus with the latest.
Jeff
, good morning to you.

JEFF ROSSEN reporting:Hey,
Matt
, good morning to you. Such an awful
story
. I've been reading through these court papers all
night
, all morning. It's disturbing, disturbing details, but this mystery now is really beginning to unravel.
Believe it or not
, this may all come down to a bad breakup between a boyfriend and girlfriend in college, these two
lacrosse players
. A
young woman
is dead and that boy now
behind bars
all because of possible relationship problems. And now this bombshell from the
suspect
himself that the
night
she died, the
nightYeardley Love
died, he admits he knocked her head into a wall over and over again. It was inside this campus bar at a post-exam
party
where 22-year-old
Yeardley Love
would spend her final hours Sunday.
Police
say when this stunning star
lacrosse
player went home her life would end. According to new court papers her on again-lately off again, boyfriend,
George Huguely
, a player on the men's
lacrosse
team, was about to pay a visit, admitting to
police
he "kicked his right foot through the door that leads to
Love
's bedroom."
Huguely
went on confessing that
night
he was "involved in an altercation with
Yeardley Love
. He shook
Love
and her head repeatedly hit the wall." Officers found her face down on her pillow in a pool of
blood
, bruises on her face, her right eye swollen shut, the victim,
police
say, of "
blunt force trauma
." Her roommate and another friend discovered her body. You believe this is first-degree murder?

ROSSEN:Friends
say
Love
and
Huguely
had a turbulent
romantic relationship
that recently got physical. In fact, some say just weeks ago, when they broke up, he tried to attack her in public. Now
police
sources tell
NBC News
they're looking into possible
death threats
he sent her over
text message
.

Ms. MEG HEUBECK (Yeardley Love's Co-Worker, University of Virginia):I think it's -- there's a lot of stigma on
women
to kind of deal with that, and I would hope that there would be something we could do to prevent those kind of things.

ROSSEN:Before it gets to this?

Ms. HEUBECK:Before it gets to this because we don't want to -- we definitely don't want to be here again.

ROSSEN:Huguely
has been
arrested
for first-degree murder. His
schoollacrosse
picture replaced by a jail mugshot. Now, even with his stunning admission of violence, his lawyer is building a defense.

Mr. FRAN LAWRENCE (George Huguely's Attorney):We are confident that Ms.
Love
's death was not intended but an
accident
with a tragic outcome. In the meantime,
George
is withdrawing from the
University of Virginia
and remains in the custody of the authorities.

ROSSEN:Tuesday, his parents came to
Charlottesville
to
support
their son, but wouldn't comment. College
friends
say there were
warning signs
. At six foot one and 205 pounds,
George Huguely
, they claim, was aggressive when he drank and liked getting his way. In
2008
, he was
arrested
for public swearing and intoxication and
resisting arrest
, allegedly screaming racial and sexual slurs at the officer. But his old
friends
back home in this wealthy
DC
suburb paint a different picture entirely.

Mr. MICHAEL PRESTON (George Huguely's Friend):I'm absolutely shocked. There -- the
George Huguely
I know growing up, the
George Huguely
that played in my backyard with me every single day was not capable of doing something like this.

ROSSEN:The crime has rocked this campus to its core.
The University of Virginia
with its beautiful views and
Southern
charm has now lost a beautiful
young woman
in a murder as ugly as it gets.

Unidentified Woman:It's really sad because she's in the prime of her life when it ended, and you know, her
family and friends
are going to have to deal with that.

ROSSEN:There were a lot of questions here on campus. Would the
lacrosse
season go on after all,
Matt
? The men's team is ranked number one in the
country
; the
women
's team ranked number four in the
country
. The
school
, the
university
, left this up to
Yeardley
's parents, that it's your final decision,
whatever you want
. They just decided last
night
the kids should play on,
Matt.

LAUER:All right,
Jeff Rossen
, in
Charlottesville
for us this morning.
Jeff
,
thank you very much
.
Meg Heubeck
works for the
University of Virginia
and worked closely with
Yeardley Love
as an adviser during her four years on campus. Meg, good morning to you. Thank you for joining us, and our sincere condolences.

Ms. HEUBECK:Thank you very much
,
Matt.
Unfortunately have
to be with you
here today, but thanks for having me.

LAUER:Yeah, I know you wanted to talk this morning because you wanted to take this beyond the headline of this tragic murder, and you wanted us to know a
little
bit about
Yeardley
. Other than the fact that she was a great athlete, we
understand
that, tell me a
little
bit about her.

Ms. HEUBECK:Well, I'm not going to go into great detail, but I will tell you that she is absolutely the epitome of the
University of Virginia
student.
Thomas Jefferson
would be proud to have such a
young woman
at his
university
studying. She just was lovely in every single way.

LAUER:How are her
friends
taking this? I mean, obviously she made an impact on that campus.

Ms. HEUBECK:Right.

LAUER:Have you had a
chance
to
speak
to some of her
friends
?

Ms. HEUBECK:Yes. They are obviously grieving. They are just devastated by the loss of a very cherished member of this community. And we're trying to help -- the
university
has been great at trying to help them through this. Everyone here in the
Charlottesville
community and at the
university
is really wrapping around the students at this point to try to
support
them through the end of the semester.

LAUER:This was a
young lady
who was about to go off and I assume do
big things
. She was going to graduate in just a couple of...

Ms. HEUBECK:Yes.

LAUER:...a couple of weeks. Do you know what were her plans, what were her dreams?

Ms. HEUBECK:Well, she will graduate, according to the
university
. I have no idea what her plans or dreams were, but we know they were to go beyond this
university
and live the mission of the
university
, which is to enrich the -- our
nation
and the world.

LAUER:Well, as I said,
Meg
, I'm sorry. I know the entire
university
, clearly her
family
, grieving, and you as well.
And I
appreciate you spending just a couple of minutes with me this morning.

Ms. HEUBECK:Thank you very much
. And of course our thoughts and our prayers are with the
family
in this very, very difficult time. Thank you.

LAUER:...that this young man has already come forward saying he kicked the door in and then hit her head against a wall several times, how do his lawyers now say this is an
accident
?

Mr. ABRAMS:Well, you already see that his lawyers are crafting this defense. They -- it sounds like -- are going to argue that there was some sort of altercation there, a fight between them. Based on what his client has already said, that's tough. And this is why -- this is what drives lawyers crazy, right, is that the client has made this statement which is now tying him. And so the lawyer now has to move forward with that statement on the books. And it sounds like the lawyer's not challenging the statement itself; he's saying, OK, yes, my client effectively made this statement, but we think that there are other circumstances that have to become into play.

LAUER:So are they going for homicide here as opposed to murder?

Mr. ABRAMS:Well, no, I think that they might be looking for possibly a not guilty entirely. Meaning, if two people get into a fight, one person ends up getting hurt, you can argue that was an
accident
, and as a result there was no crime committed.

LAUER:But if you kick a door down to get
access
to a person, haven't you already crossed, you know, no pun intended...

Mr. ABRAMS:Yeah.

LAUER:...the -- a certain threshold?

Mr. ABRAMS:It's a tough defense...

LAUER:Right.

Mr. ABRAMS:...under these particular circumstances. It sounds like that's what they are pursuing, but you're absolutely right. And remember, it sounds -- the
police
are in fact saying it was premeditated. So they're not just saying this was a
crime of passion
. They're saying that he thought about this, he had made threats to her in the past and then went over there to execute effectively on those threats.

LAUER:If they can prove some of those threats in the past -- if, for example, some of those e-mails or texts that we've heard reported prove to be true, how does that impact him?

Mr. ABRAMS:It's tough. I mean, it makes it a very, very tough situation for him. I mean you've got that, you've got his own words, which I think are going to be -- have a
big impact
here. You've got the
physical evidence
and you've got his past experiences with violence. Now, the defense team may say shouldn't be relevant; prosecutors will argue that's part of a pattern of behavior on his part and is very relevant, according to prosecutors.